


Red Hoodie to Red Hood

by wynnebat



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Actor Stiles, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Not McCall Pack Friendly, POV Peter Hale, Stiles Leaves the Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 05:49:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12599604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: The best revenge is living well, and Stiles has never been one for underachievement.





	Red Hoodie to Red Hood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dema](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dema/gifts).



> A giftfic for dema69 through the [harvey_fanaid](https://harvey-fanaid.dreamwidth.org/) auction! Many thanks for donating ❤️

Peter heard the car drive up the long driveway of the rebuilt Hale house, but he spent a few moments hoping that perhaps the car would turn around. Maybe it would be a particularly stupid person taking too long to realize that they'd made a wrong turn. Or maybe the visitor was one of the pack simply needing a place to park their car while going for a run in the woods. The visitor wouldn't even have to knock on his door.

Especially not with that loud pounding that began to echo through the house.

With a sigh, Peter placed his book down on the living room coffee table and took his time stretching his shoulders and picking himself up from the armchair. The quiet movie soundtrack playing in the background did nothing to drown out the insistent pounding.

"Scott," Peter greeted, opening the front door. He glanced over the young man, frowning minutely at the way the Alpha looked. Scott was in a state, his eyes wide with shock and his clothes rumpled. He was clutching a laptop with hands that looked one more upsetting word away from becoming claws. "I see your day is going well."

"We need to call a pack meeting," Scott wasted no time in saying.

"Is it a matter of immediate threat?"

"No, but it's still important!"

"I'm sure you could hold this very important meeting at your apartment," Peter said, completely without sympathy. While it was true that he'd rebuilt his childhood home and offered it as a meeting place for the McCall pack, both because he enjoyed being in the loop and because the others were in their twenties and living in tiny apartments or at home, he hadn't offered it for anything other than the most important situations. Scott McCall's girlfriend woes or whatever this was about did not measure up.

"It's about Stiles," Scott said, looking at him pleadingly. "It's really important. I think I know where he's been all these years."

"Ah, the mystery for the ages," Peter drawled, but he waved him inside. This was sure to be entertaining.

He settled back into his favorite armchair, tucking the book aside, and listened with one ear while Scott confirmed the meeting with the others. In the twenty minutes it took for the rest of the pack to arrive, Scott mostly paced the room and fiddled with something on his laptop. Peter felt gleefully prepared for the resulting madness. Isaac was the first to arrive, always so willing to go wherever Scott was. Then came Boyd and Erica, scowling as they decided the meeting wasn't important enough for them to be there. Jackson entered with a, "I don't actually care what Stiles has been doing with his life," but he still took a seat. Lydia took a seat next to him when he arrived and Allison found a spot next to Scott, placing a hand on his shoulder and whispering, "Hey, it's alright, whatever it is." Liam and the rest of the even younger members of the pack had been able to beg off with the excuse of, "We don't even know that guy? I mean congrats for him and all, but really, Scott."

It seemed that Chris and Melissa had decided to leave Peter as the only adult at the meeting, to which Peter reacted to by pulling out his phone and sending them some choice phrases. Honestly, leaving him at the mercy of the McCall pack? So cruel. Melissa replied with a picture of what exactly she was stuck doing at work—Peter wrinkled his nose even though the scent was unable to carry through the photo—and Chris replied with a shrug emoji.

Scott cleared his throat. "Alright, as I said, I called this meeting because I've finally found out where Stiles is. He's an actor now."

 _Finally being the operative word,_ Peter thought, tucking his phone back in his pocket and enjoying the look of utter bafflement on the rest of the pack's faces. Even Scott, who Peter assumed had found proof somewhere, looked unsure about his own words.

"Scott, not everyone who says they're an actor actually is one," Lydia said, raising an eyebrow. "What did he tell you?"

"We haven't actually talked." Scott pressed a few keys on his laptop and a movie began to play.

It took Peter a moment to place which one of Stiles' movies this was, since the man had played a role in several by this point, though not as major of a role as the one as in The Red Hood, which had finally caused the pack to catch on. Peter couldn't see the screen at this angle, but he had a front row seat to the shock on the faces of the rest of the pack as the actor took off his mask and revealed himself to the audience. The general audience would know him as Jonny Cage Junior, a talented up and coming young actor, but the pack knew him by the name he'd had before. Quietly, Peter snapped a picture for the two people who would appreciate this moment the most.

Scott waved a hand at the screen. "See? I was watching the movie earlier and I nearly had a heart attack! That's Stiles!"

Lydia turned her head a bit. "Are you sure that's Stiles? The lighting is rather dark. It's probably some guy who just looks like him."

"No, look," Scott said, clicking to a later scene. Personally, it was Peter's favorite scene in the movie, but he bit his tongue to watch the pack scramble for excuses.

"Stiles' hair has never looked anywhere near that good," Jackson disagreed, folding his arms. "And his voice is different, isn't it?"

"I'll take it," Erica said, looking closer. "He looks too similar not to look like Stiles. But how did we never hear about him? His name isn't exactly a common one."

"According to the Wiki page, the Red Hood is played by Jonny Cage Junior," Allison said. She waved her phone at the pack and pressed down. "But look at the photos. The birthday's all wrong and it just says he's from LA and I don't know where he got his name, but that's Stiles. I'd recognize him anywhere."

"He somehow developed a fashion sense," Lydia murmured, flipping through her own google image search.

Jackson rolled his eyes. "I'm sure someone else did it for him."

"It's not like someone's going to be babysitting him twenty-four seven," Erica cut in. "But there's not a single hint of plaid."

Looking over her shoulder, Boyd was the one to say, "He looks good."

Lydia harrumphed at him, but didn't disagree.

Isaac pulled up some entertainment sites and read parts of the various movie-related interviews that had been held before and after the release. Ben Affleck only had praise for the young actor, while Stiles' main co-star joked about it being a pity that Jonny wasn't single, begging him to bring out his mysterious boyfriend so that she could be properly jealous.

"I don't know what I thought he'd be doing with his life, but this really wasn't it," Scott said, staring down at his screen.

"Isn't this good?" Allison asked.

Peter had the feeling that the thought in their minds was _too good_. It was one thing for the teen who'd left the pack because of their lies and distrust to be doing well, but suddenly becoming a movie star was a level of living well that was nearly unheard of. Stiles had always had talent, but his career had blossomed once he'd been free to do what he wanted to do. Granted, Peter hadn't cared much in those early days. The way Stiles had been steadily getting pushed out would have helped his plans enormously, both with the lesser manipulations he had going and the long-term plan he'd been considering: stealing Scott's True Alpha powers. But with Stiles gone and the pack all but toothless, it had felt too much like stealing candy from a baby. Peter really had mellowed out in his old age.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Scott asked, finally looking over at Peter. "Stiles duped you, too."

"I'm in a state of shock, really," Peter said, attempting not to grin. Talia would've called him out on the lie, but Scott barely noticed it.

"I can't believe he was still in this state all this time," Scott said, crossing his arms. "The sheriff said he'd said he was going to live with his grandparents in Oklahoma, but he couldn't have stayed there long if he's already this good."

"Do you think the sheriff knows?" Allison asked. "He never really talks much about Stiles."

"Perhaps because Stiles eventually realized his father had never been a very good parent," Peter drawled, ignoring Scott's shout. Really, even if Scott hadn't chosen his werewolf friends over his oldest friend, Stiles would've probably still stayed for his dad. But eventually it had caught up with him that the sheriff couldn't find a way to trust Stiles, even when the man was happy to trust Scott. Stiles had packed his bags and left with only Derek following him out of town, telling him he wasn't about to let the teenager hitchhike his way to wherever he needed to go. They'd been inseparable ever since. Peter had stayed in touch with Derek throughout the years and eventually he'd even formed something of a friendship with Stiles. Enough for this whole thing to irritate him on the man's behalf.

"I'll call him," Scott said, pulling out his phone. It rang for a few moments.

"Sheriff Stilinski speaking," the man on the other end said.

"It's Scott. How come you never told us Stiles is a movie star?"

"He's a _what_?" the sheriff asked. He listened to Scott's explanation, letting out shocked exclamations every so often. "He always talks about living it up now that he's famous but I thought he was joking… He doesn't ever tell me what he's doing with his life—says he's tired of my disapproval—but sometimes he mentions something off-handedly. I just assumed he was being sarcastic. He's always calling the traffic being almost as bad as the red carpet, that sort of thing."

By the time the phone call came to an end, Scott had ascertained that Stiles must have lied to even his father about where he was going. The fact that the sheriff hadn't left in order to find his kid said a lot—and so did the fact that Scott hadn't truly searched for his former best friend until Stiles' image came up on screen right in front of him.

"I guess he's really not coming back, is he," Scott said. He leaned into Allison, a hangdog look crossing his face. "I thought he would eventually, you know?"

It wasn't a planned thing, but eventually, one by one, the pack returned to Beacon Hills. To Peter, it had been very unfortunate, as he'd rather enjoyed being the only member of the pack left in Beacon Hills for a few years while the brats were at college. It looked as though Scott had expected the trend to continue with Stiles. Peter wondered if he'd thought Stiles would come back, tail between his legs, trying to rekindle the friendship he'd once shared with Scott. Even years ago, Peter would've known that Stiles knew his own worth much better than that. And now, the rest of the world would know it too. The fact that the pack would have to accept it over and over again as Stiles' movies became even more popular brought Peter an inordinate amount of amusement.

"But most importantly," Isaac began. He had that look on his face, the one he got when he really felt like riling Scott up. "Do you think we can get an autograph?"

Scott whimpered at him. "I can't believe you."

Peter couldn't either, but mostly because he couldn't think of a single reason why Stiles would ever say yes to these people again.

With a few taps, Peter texted the picture he'd taken earlier to one of his most-texted contacts, along with a short message. _Nephew, I hope you're prepared for the McCall pack to storm your gates. It seems the wolf is out of the bag. Scott has finally watched The Red Hood._

_They won't get past the literal gates, Stiles has made sure of that. But he's been in several major movies already, how did it possibly take so long?_

Peter sighed. _Idiocy, self-absorption, and being too busy to watch movies when Beacon Hills is continuing to draw in all manner of beasts._

_You could always come visit us in LA for a while._

_I'm strongly considering it._

But, Peter did have to admit, he had to stay in Beacon Hills for a little while longer. Just until the pack realized that Jonny Cage Jr.'s boyfriend, literary sensation D. L. Hail—read by most of the pack and a favorite of Scott's—had roots in Beacon Hills as well. Maybe next time, he'd even record a video for his nephew.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr as @[crownwithoutstones](https://crownwithoutstones.tumblr.com/).


End file.
